Good news is tough to come by in Springfield these days, but on Friday the governor and General Assembly made a valuable contribution to the fight against poverty:

Gov. Rod Blagojevich signed legislation Friday that creates a panel to study poverty in Illinois and make recommendations on how to eradicate it.

The Commission on the Elimination of Poverty will be tasked with developing a plan to address and reduce extreme poverty in Illinois by 50 percent or more by 2015, according to a news release from the governor's office.

The commission will focus on eight areas, including housing, food and nutrition, health care, education, transportation, wages and child care. State Rep. Robert Pritchard (R-Hinckley) tells the DeKalb Daily Chronicle that the members will determine whether programs the state currently offers are working and should develop new ones if those strategies aren't getting good results. 

The Heartland Alliance's Doug Schenkelberg adds that it's an "important victory."  As we noted back in April, a study by the Alliance found that "poverty increased in 74 of Illinois' 102 counties" between 2000 and 2006 and now "afflicts more than 1.5 million Illinoisans."

For more on this issue, read John Bouman's recent Progress Illinois column.